Spiritual Housecleaning

3 RD E D I T I O N
SPIRITUAL
HOUSECLEANING
Protect
Your Home
and Family
from Spiritual
Pollution
EDDIE & ALICE SMITH
G
Eddie & Alice Smith, Spiritual Housecleaning, 3rd ed.
Chosen Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2015. Used by permission.
(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)

Smith_SpiritualHousecleaning_NS_bb.indd 5
6/10/15 7:15 AM
2003, 2007, 2009, 2015 by Eddie and Alice Smith

Published by Chosen Books
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.chosenbooks.com
Chosen Books is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Previously published by Regal Books.
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy,
recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is
brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Eddie.
Spiritual housecleaning : protect your home and family from spiritual
pollution / Eddie and Alice Smith. 3rd Edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
Summary: It only takes a small opening for demons to gain access to your
home. Discover how to detect, expel, and close the door to these intruders for
good Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-8007-9592-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Spiritual warfare. I. Smith, Alice, II. Title.
BV4509.5.S622 2015
235 .4dc23
2015009626
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version.
Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations identied amp are from the Amplied Bible, copyright 1954, 1958,
1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations identied cev are from the Contemporary English Version 1991,
1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations identied esv are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
(ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2007
Scripture quotations identied nasb are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright
1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.
Used by permission.
Scripture quotations identied niv are from the Holy Bible, New International Version.
NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture identied niv1984 taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica.
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations identied kjv are from the King James Version
of the Bible.
Cover design by Dual Identity
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Contents
Preface: Fasten Your Seat Belt 9

Introduction: Why We Wrote This Book 13
Part One: Spiritual Housecleaning Principles
1. Spiritual Discernment 19
2. Who Wants to Live in a Haunted Hotel?
3. Symptoms of Spiritual Pollution 63
4. Causes of Spiritual Pollution 73
5. Where You Never Thought to Look 87
6. The Purication Process 101
51
Part Two: Stories and Applications

7. Home-Front Stories of Spiritual
Housecleaning 115
8. Children and Spiritual Housecleaning 141
9. Spiritual Church Cleaning 165
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Contents
10. Work, Other Peoples Property, and Loved

Ones 193
11. Spiritual Housecleaning Wisdom and
Warnings 209
Conclusion 215
Recommended Resources 219
Glossary 221
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Preface
Fasten Your Seat Belt
In the 1980s, I (Eddie) took a church pastoral staff job, and

we bought a house and settled down. Alice became an awardwinning real estate agent. During the next eleven years, we
served a local congregation in Houston, Texas. It wasnt long
before we encountered experiences with the demonic among
our membership, and then other churches began to send us
people who needed counseling involving the supernatural,
demons and the rest.
One night, we facilitated the deliverance of a dear lady in
northwest Houston. To make an extremely long story short,
we and another pastor from our church were challenging
the demons that were tormenting the lady when we asked,
What gives you the right to stay in her?
With that, the ladys arm involuntarily moved above her
head and pointed to a bookshelf with a sliding door. We
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Preface
opened the door and discovered a Christian book about

demons. This? we asked.
The ladys face twisted into a sarcastic sneer, and the
demon (speaking through her) said devilishly, Yes.
Without a thought, I ripped the book into shreds. As I did,
the demons shrieked and left her. She was freed.
Our pastoral team learned to minister to people using
ministry teams of three to ve people. Soon, we developed a
system we called Ministry Team Training to teach our church
members how to minister in teams. Before long, hundreds of
people from churches across the South came to our church
to be trained at our quarterly training events. The course
further developed as the experience of our team grew, and
we established multiple levels of training.
Shortly after leaving the church to do the work we now
dowriting and teaching at conferences around the world
we wrote the original edition of Spiritual Housecleaning. To
our amazement (and perhaps our publishers!), our book
became an overnight bestseller. People from various nations,
cultures and languages sent us praise reports. Theyd read
our book, had applied the biblical principles we presented
and had found victory!
In this revised and updated edition of Spiritual Housecleaning, we share some of their stories with you. Why? To help you
see even more clearly why living a life of purity and victory
depends upon our forsaking things that dishonor Christ and
His Kingdom and to help you understand that evil has the same
mode of operation wherever it exists around the world. Evil
is neither creative nor complex. In fact, its quite predictable.
So fasten your seat belt. Some of the stories you will read
will amaze you. But we arent the least bit interested in your
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Preface
entertainment. Rather, we pray that youll receive new revelation of the tactics of the enemy so that you can live free
and set others free. Scripture clearly teaches that evil will
become darker and righteousness brighter until our Lord
comes for His Church (Isaiah 60:13; Daniel 12:3; Matthew
13:2443; 2 Timothy 3:13).
Lets prepare. The worst and the best are yet to come!
Eddie and Alice
Houston, Texas
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Introduction
Why We Wrote This Book
Imagine there was a plague of snakes of biblical proportion

in your city. The house in which you live became completely
overrun with deadly, poisonous snakes. How important
would it be for you to make sure some of the snakes were
removed? You would not even consider that an option, would
you? Absolutely not! You would insist that all of the snakes
be removed if you and your family were to continue to live
there. Could you sleep peacefully if you thought there might
be even one poisonous snake left in your home? Hardly.
Would you believe there could be possessions inside your
home right now that pose a spiritual threat to you and your
family, just like poisonous snakes pose a physical threat?
The average Christian family may not even be aware of the
necessity to spiritually clean their house in order to experience the peaceful presence of God.
Thats why we wrote this book.
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Introduction
Many of us are suffering today because we have sometimes

willfully, and sometimes ignorantly, invited possessions and
behaviors into our homes that dele the atmosphere and
give the devil the right to affect our lives and the lives of our
children. This delement can come in many forms: statues
of foreign gods, magic charms, occult books or perverse
souvenirs of past sins. But whatever the form, God doesnt
want us to possess deled objects, for they invite the devil to
wreak havoc with our hearts and homes. That is clearly not
how Christ wants us to live. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians
10:20, I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
To the uninitiated reader, some of whats contained in
this book may sound a bit like superstition. We understand
where you are coming from. Some might even conclude that
our belief in a spirit world and faith in an unseen God is a
superstition. But to us, superstition is placing faith in any
person, place or thing other than the almighty God and His
infallible Word. We reveal not legalism nor superstition but
biblical principles and proven practices that can indeed free
us, and our households, from any spiritual bondage.
That being said, Christs cross and resurrection have established our authority over the devil. Since Jesus gives us His
authority, we are to live on the offensive (Matthew 10:1; Luke
19:10; Ephesians 6:10). For that reason, we should never fear
the devil or demons. Jesus set the example for us when He
taught us to pray, Deliver us from evil (Matthew 6:13 kjv).
The Lords deliverance is available to those who walk in the
way of righteousness. With this knowledge, as children of the
King, we exchange our fear for freedom. Yet to fully live in
our inheritance, we must be sure there is nothing in our lives
or in our homes that would hinder our fellowship with God.
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Introduction
What does purity of heart involve for us as Christians?

What does it mean to love God with all our hearts, our souls
and our minds? It means to not allow Satan access to any
aspect of our lives, thereby keeping ourselves undeled. It
means that we dont give Satan any place or allow him any
opportunity (Ephesians 4:27).
Today is a new day for the Church! Its time for the Church
of Jesus Christ to awaken from her slumber. We can no longer
afford to wallow in the carnality of the world and expect the
Lord to overlook it. Today, God is calling us to a new level of
holiness. We need to cleanse the atmosphere of our homes as
well as our hearts. This cleansing often involves the removal
of certain physical possessions. But which ones?
We have written this book to teach you how to walk circumspectly and to exercise spiritual discernment (1 Corinthians 2:15; Ephesians 5:15). This may very well prove to be
one of the most important books you will ever read, because
its principles can provide the key to spiritual peace and security for you and your entire family.
We have a world to reach with the Gospel! But before we
can reach a fallen world, God must reach us. Our lives and
our possessions should reect Gods Kingdom rule. Were
not to live under the tyranny of legalism or performance.
We are to be godly and grateful because we know we owe
everything to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
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Part One
Spiritual
Housecleaning
Principles


6/10/15 7:15 AM
1
Spiritual Discernment
The Indian sun blazed, raising temperatures to 118 degrees

Fahrenheit by midday. People were dying due to the excessive
heat. To protect themselves, most would work until about
10:00 a.m., retreat inside until sundown and then resume
their business and shopping.
Robert (our eldest son) and I (Eddie) were in Karapur,
India, to teach at a Christian conference (and, by the grace
of God, we managed to survive the heat!). More than three
hundred Indian Christians joined us there, bearing the intense heat as they rode bicycles, buses and trainssome for
daysto attend the conference. Once there, they slept on
concrete oors, bathed out of buckets and ate food cooked
over outdoor res.
We taught various subjects, but my teaching on spiritual
housecleaning had the most far-reaching impact on this
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Spiritual Housecleaning Principles
idol-worshiping culture. As I spoke about unbiblical heathen

practices and cultural traditions, I could see my listeners removing from their bodies, their pockets and their purses the
Hindu fetishes (i.e., string bracelets, necklaces and charms)
they wore or carried in hopes that a particular god would
protect or provide for them.
I gave the altar call. With zeal they brought those forbidden, spiritually deled items to the altar and discarded them
(Acts 19:1819). Freedom rang out like church bells in the
hearts of those precious people that day! Curses were broken, generational sin was severed and spiritual liberty was
released. Some people were healed and others were saved.
The next day we baptized 67 in a public city pond!
Robert and I left the hotel the day after our conference
to catch our plane for the United States. Wed been gone
from the hotel for about thirty minutes when we received a
phone call telling us that the police had come to the hotel
to arrest usjust minutes after we left. God spared us the
trouble.
Why did they want to arrest us? Was it because 67 people
had trusted Christ? Was it because 67 people had renounced
their Hindu faith and been baptized? No. It was because we
had taught them that their Hindu worship artifacts were evil,
deled and forbidden by God. The newspapers reported that
we had offended and belittled their Hindu gods and that
wed converted three hundred of their people. They didnt
understand a thing about the true conversion of the 67 whod
received eternal life but instead focused on the three hundred
who disposed of their fetishes.
Wouldnt you agree that if asking people to divest themselves of these things offended the Hindu priests so much that
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they sent police to arrest us, its safe to assume that those
things (or, rather, the Hindu gods behind them) held some
sort of power over them? And for us to possess such things
glories devils and grieves the one true God (Acts 2429;
1 Corinthians 10:1822).
Genesis 35:15 gives us a biblical example of this truth:
And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell
there; and make there an altar unto God, that appeared
unto thee when thou eddest from the face of Esau thy
brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all
that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are
among you, and be clean, and change your garments; and
let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an
altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress,
and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave
unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand,
and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob
hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. And they
journeyed; and the terror of God was upon the cities that
were round about them, and they did not pursue after the
sons of Jacob.
kjv, emphasis added
After Jacob and his family got rid of their objects of idolatry, God honored them. His presence went with them and
put terror in the hearts of the people around thempeople
who might otherwise have attacked them. Today, the same
power and favor of God is available to us, whether we are
in India, America, Antarctica or anywhere else in the world!
Time and again, for over forty years, our experiences with
spiritual housecleaning have shown this to be true.
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Encounters with Demons

In our early days of itinerant evangelism, we traveled hundreds of thousands of miles, living in a motor home that we
lovingly called our piece of wheel estate. In fact, during
that time we owned seven such vehicles before we stopped
traveling! We conducted hundreds of evangelistic crusades
in churches and football stadiums across America. We were
blessed to see thousands of people come to Christ.
During those early years of our ministry, we did a great
deal of personal counseling. Traveling as we did from town to
town, we began to recognize spiritual patterns. Regardless of
whether we were in a city, in suburbs or in small rural towns,
we noticed similar things happening in the spiritual realm.
In the late sixties and early seventies, few books had been
written about spiritual warfare or deliverance. Pigs in the
Parlor, written by our friend the late Frank Hammond, was
one of the rst. Hollywoods burgeoning fascination with
the demonic expressed itself in lms like Rosemarys Baby,
Poltergeist and The Exorcist, to name a few. Added to that
was the massive inux of immigrants to the United States,
who arrived with their family gods and religious cultural
practices (many ready to build their temples and mosques
right in our neighborhoods). Our land quickly became deled. Dont misunderstandAmerica has her own demons.
But our Leave It to Beaver days were over, and demonic
manifestations began to explode in this nation through the
media, and through the collapse of moral integrity in our
courts.
We encountered our rst case of a demonized person in a
large Baptist church in South Texas. Frankly, we were stunned
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to witness a respected churchgoing woman lying on the

oor of her pastors office, hissing and writhing like a snake,
speaking with an unearthly male-sounding voice. From that
moment, we were completely convinced that Satan is more
than an evil idea or philosophy. He and his minions are real
spiritual beingslike people without bodieswho have an
intense desire to inhabit human bodies to fulll their lusts and
desires and advance Satans kingdom (Matthew 12:2526,
4345).
Soon we were routinely counseling demonized people,
leading them through deliverance from the demons that
plagued them, many from birth. At the same time, we encountered peoplegodly people, believable peoplewho
were experiencing poltergeists (mischievous demons who
move objects), ghosts (demons masquerading as the deceased) and other troubling manifestations. Children were the
most easily harassed by them. They suffered from insomnia,
nightmares and more.1
As our experience grew, so did our understanding. We
discovered that the demons that plagued people were in some
cases strengthened by unholy possessionsdeled, forbidden objects that dishonored Christ (Deuteronomy 7:2526;
Hosea 4:1013; 1 Corinthians 10:1822). Almost weekly we
saw people who, as they discarded those possessions, experienced freedom from demonic manifestations.
In Acts 19, we see how Ephesian believers destroyed their
occult material when they saw the power of God at work
through Paul. In that day, Ephesus was known as a witchcraft
capital of the Roman world. It was a city famed for its written
1. To learn more about deliverance, see Alice Smith, Delivering the Captives
(Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2006). Available at www.PrayerBookstore.com.
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collections of occult spells, statues and images of the goddess Diana, and for the practitioners who used them. Paul
shook up the city when he came preaching the name of Jesus
in the power of the Holy Spirit. Through signs, wonders and
deliverances, many believed. But it took a demonic attack
on the seven sons of Sceva to show the Ephesian Christians
that they needed to shut every door to evil activity in their
lives (Acts 19:1116). When this happened, those believers
got the message: Jesus is the highest power in the universe!
They then burned their books of the occult, rid themselves
of idolatry and confessed their sins publicly. What happened
next? The word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed!
(Acts 19:20).
Ministering Deliverance
During a conference in a Southern state, there was a gathering
at the pastors home. One of the ladies in the group caught
our attention. We both discerned a spiritual delement about
her. Jane (not her real name) was the music ministers wife,
and her husband was out of town that week. Before the week
was over, we found ourselves counseling with her concerning her sexual involvement with one of the teenage boys
in the church. (Yes, she was sexually active with one of the
churchs own teens!)
We asked Jane about her salvation. This pretty young
woman said she had been saved one night while driving her
truck. A voice had whispered in her left ear, Give me your
life, and she had said, Lord, I do give You my life.
And to whom were you speaking? we probed.
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What do you mean, to whom? she said. I was speaking to God.

How did you know it was God?
You mean it might have been a demonic spirit?
She realized that from the moment shed made that commitment, her life had begun a downhill slide. (If you ask God
for a sh, He wont give you a serpent, but a devil certainly
may.) In Matthew 7:1720, Jesus said that the fruits
peoples actions and charactershow whether the source of
that fruit is good and from God or bad and not from God.
This womans decision produced the bad fruit of growing
oppression and uncontrollable sin in her life, which showed
that she had unwittingly given her life to demons.
The bottom line? She was born again and delivered that
week. All the issues came out for the necessary parties to
bring correction.
Two weeks later, her husband called to tell us she was
suffering from an overwhelming temptation to rekindle her
sinful relationship with the boy. Through phone counseling,
we discovered that she had a blouse and a necklace the young
man had given her. Those gifts, we explained, were physical
representations of their sin. Covenants are sealed with gifts.
They strengthen the soul tie (a spiritual attachment between people brought about through evil actions or unholy
covenants between them). It wasnt until she destroyed the
items that she was set free. People can develop godly soul
ties, like Jonathan and David (1 Samuel 18:1), or ungodly
soul ties, like Samson and Delilah (Judges 16:419).
Because we were traveling evangelists, we had far more
experiences and encounters than we would have had were we
pastors in one locale. One night in a tiny Tennessee church,
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we were in a pastors study, trying to help Kim, a delinquent

teenage girl. When Kims unwed teenage mother conceived
her, her mother and father (Kims grandparents) out of shame
tried to cover their daughters sin. They sent her away until
she gave birth to Kim. During that time, the family moved to
another city and didnt tell extended family members about
the pregnancy or the birth.
When Kim was born, her grandparents adopted her and
never disclosed to her that she was actually their granddaughter, not their daughter. Kim was taught and believed
that her birth mother was her older sister. One day, one of
Kims cousins discovered the deception and told her about it.
Her parents (actually her grandparents) lied again and told
her it was only a cruel prank. But she believed her cousin,
and became depressed, suspicious and severely troubled. She
didnt know who or what to believe.
Kims mother and father (again, actually her grandparents) brought her to us for counseling. When they told us
how they had lied to her, we insisted that they tell Kim the
awful truth no matter how painful it would be. Kim could
never build a healthy life on a foundation of lies and deceit.
That night they disclosed to Kim that she was their granddaughter and that her sister was actually her mother. She
was devastated, but in her heart she had known all along that
something wasnt right. Kim had lived with a lie her entire
life, and it affected her core identity.
For an hour we ministered deliverance to Kim without
seeing the breakthrough wed hoped for. We were stymied.
It seemed wed hit the proverbial brick wall. We prayed for
God to reveal why we were so impotent against the spirits
that bound her.
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Then we noticed something in a lower bookshelf. The

pastors bottom bookshelf contained a copy of Anton Levys
Satanic Bible along with several other occult handbooks. We
asked the pastor why he had them. He said he had bought
them for research.
We explained to him that they were compromising the
young ladys deliverance. We stopped our session, took the
books outside to a trash-burning bin and set re to them. It
was almost impossible to get them lit, but after we did, the
most amazing thing happened (since then weve seen this
many times and hear about it often): No matter which side of
the bin we chose to stand on, regardless of the direction of the
slight breeze that night, the ames licked out at us. When we
moved away from the bin, they licked farther, trying to reach
us. It was almost as if the ames had minds of their own.
Once the books were destroyed, Kim was completely liberated by the Lord.
Spiritual Delement in the Home
The womans voice on the other end of the line sounded
eerie and mystical. She had sought help from a Christian
psychiatric hospital that had referred her to us. This divorced
woman and her eight-year-old daughter lived alone, trapped
in a world of darkness. The girls father was a Unitarian
pastor, but prior to that he had been an African witch doctor in a tribe known as the Leopard People. The now-abandoned single mom had extensive knowledge of the occult.
And though she testied to having been recently born again,
within the walls of her home, torment ruled.
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At her request, we visited her home. Cats fearfully scurried

from under our feet as our small prayer team approached the
apartment door. When the woman opened the door, we were
introduced to an atmosphere that almost took our breath
awayit felt electric with evil.
Once inside, two large cats cowering near the refrigerator
hissed at us, then disappeared within seconds. The electrical
power ashed off and on until we commanded it to stop. To
the right of the front door was a ten-foot bookcase lled
with religious, heathen and occult books. She invited us to
be seated and we began to discuss her problems.
She explained that her daughter was being harassed in the
night by nightmares and apparitions. The child would awake
to see ghosts in her room. (The ghosts were actually demons
appearing in the forms of an old African-aboriginal man
and woman.) The concerned mother stated that at times the
child would leap on top of the dressers and move about like
a leopard. This precious little girl would sometimes awake in
the morning with humanlike bite marks and claw scratches
in the middle of her back.
One night, the frightened girl awakened her mother several times, complaining that ies were biting her. Each time
her mother turned on the lights and searched the room but
found nothing. The next morning when she opened the window shades, she found a mound of dead ies piled on her
daughters windowsill. This didnt surprise uswe know
that Satan is referred to as Beelzebub, the lord of the ies
(Matthew 12:2432; Mark 3:22).
The enemy had clearly been given authority to operate in
their home. As we prayed and asked God for wisdom and
discernment, we waited for the Holy Spirits direction. The
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demonic reality was almost palpable. Spiritual impressions

from the Lord (i.e., the word of knowledge [1 Corinthians
12:8]) came to our team members as we cleansed the atmosphere with prayer.
All at once, as though the team had received the same revelation, we turned and stared at the wall of booksher huge
occult library. We explained to the young mother that the
books and the artwork acted as bait for the demons. (As
ies are attracted to dung, demons are attracted to darkness.)
Her library was an open invitation to demonic spirits and
gave them legal right to dele her home and harass her and
her child. These books, like a welcome mat, communicated
to the unseen demonic world that they had the womans
permission to stay. Such items and artifacts may seem harmless, yet they hold signicance to satanic spirits.
We urged the mother to discard the occult books. We even
offered to dispose of them for her. She refused. She lamented
over the money shed invested in the books. We lovingly
explained that the books symbolized contracts shed made
with the enemy, and unless she forsook them, wed have no
authority over the demons that victimized them.
We begged for the sake of her daughter that she spiritually clean the house, but she turned a deaf ear to us. This
womans attachment to her occult library compromised her
and her daughters spiritual security and allowed the enemy
to terrorize her child. Sadly, we were unable to go any further.
C. Peter Wagner shares an account of the power of idols
in the ancient city of Athens.
The only place in the Bible where we nd the phrase given
over to idols (from the Greek kateidolos) is where Luke
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describes Athens in Acts 17:16. Athens was the idol capital

of the ancient world, possibly comparable to Kyoto, Japan,
today. The literature of that day describes Athens as a forest
of idols in which it is easier to nd a god than a human being.
Certain streets had so many idols that pedestrian traffic was
difficult. One observer estimated that Athens contained more
idols than the rest of Greece combined!
Because idols themselves are only made of wood or
stone or metal, some are not concerned about their presence. These idols, however, were not just any piece of wood
or stone or metal. They had been carefully and intentionally crafted by human beings as forms in the visible world
through which the forces of the invisible world of darkness
were invited to control the lives of people, families and the
city as a whole, locking the people in spiritual darkness.
Thats why we read that Pauls spirit was provoked within
him (v. 16).2
Yet this is not the only illustration of delement. Lets look

at what happened to Joshua in the Old Testament.
A Piece of Cake?
Now, sir, lets not overreact, suggested Eliasaph,3 General
Joshuas senior military adviser. We can relax now and give
the men a break. Trust methis one is going to be a piece
of cake. According to our reconnaissance, theres no reason
at all for you to send the entire Israeli army to attack such a
small place as Ai. [Ai literally means a heap of ruin.] I
2. C. Peter Wagner, Confronting the Powers (Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books,
1996), 204205.
3. The following is a loose adaptation of Joshua 7; General Eliasaph is a
character created for the sake of readability.
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suggest that a reduced force of two or three thousand troops

will be sufficient to utterly destroy the city.
So the next morning Joshua sent three thousand troops
to annihilate little Ai. To their surprise, the feisty troops of
Ai, ready for battle, killed 36 Israeli soldiers and chased the
others from the gate of the city down the slope to the stone
quarries. Israels dispirited army was forced to retreat like a
dog with its tail tucked between its legs.
Joshua was stunned when he heard the news. After all, the
much larger city of Jericho, which theyd soundly defeated,
still lay in smoldering ruins. How could Eliasaph have so
grossly underestimated the military capability of a small
town like Ai? Joshua wondered. More importantwhere
was God? And what about the promises He had made to
them? God had clearly said:
Joshua, I am giving to you the land I promised Moses. I will
always be with you and I will help you as I helped him. No
one will ever be able to defeat you. So be strong and courageous! Do everything Moses taught you. Never stop reading
the Book of the Law he gave you. Think about what it says
day and night. Obey it completely, and you will be able to
take this land.
see Joshua 1:19
Joshua called together an emergency council meeting of

Israels leaders. Gentlemen, he said, you will recall that
Jehovah God promised us that He would never leave us and
that we would never be defeated. Where do you suppose we
went wrong when that handful of untrained, ragtag men
disgraced our troops today? May I suggest, sirs, that we have
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a national emergency on our hands? And we must get to the

bottom of thisnow!
So Joshua and the leaders tore their clothes and put dirt
on their heads as a symbol of sorrow and repentance. They
lay facedown on the ground in front of the Ark of the Covenant and cried out to God until sunset.
Then Joshua prayed:
Lord, did You bring us across the Jordan just so the Amorites
could annihilate us? If we had stayed on the other side of
the Jordan, none of this would have happened. Frankly, Im
speechless. Its shocking to realize that our army actually
ran from our enemy today. Our people will soon think that
You can no longer protect us. When our enemies hear of our
humiliation, they are likely to become emboldened. They
may even try to surround us and wipe us out.
The Lord answered Joshua:

General, get up off your face! Im not taking prayer requests
at this time. I told you that everything in Jericho belonged to
Me. Whats more, I told you to destroy the city and everything
in it. Instead, you and your people have stolen and hidden
some of the booty for yourselves; and youve lied about it.
Because youve stolen stuff that was to be destroyed, Israel itself has been set aside for destruction. I cant help you
anymore until you do exactly what Ive told you to do. And
thats precisely why your army could not stand before the
little band of men at Ai.
Tell the people that theyll never be able to stand against
another enemy until they rid themselves of the abominable
things that theyve hidden. Tell them to prepare for worship.
Tomorrow morning, when they gather for worship, I will
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6/10/15 7:15 AM
identify for you the guilty tribe and point out the guilty clan
and the guilty family. And I will show you the man who stole
the forbidden things that have deled Israel and have broken
the sacred covenant I made with you. That man, along with
his wife, his sons and his daughters, must be executed by
stoning. Their bodies and all of their possessions must be
burned.
Early the next morning Joshua brought each tribe to the

place of worship. There the Lord identied Judah as the guilty
tribe and the clan of Zerah and Zabdis family as the guilty
clan and family. He showed them that Achan was the man
responsible for violating Israels contract with God.
General Joshua said, Achan, is it true? Dont try to hide
anything from me. Tell me what youve done.
Yes, sir, its true, Achan answered reluctantly. Im the
one who sinned against the Lord God of Israel. While we were
mopping up at Jericho, I found a beautiful Babylonian robe,
two hundred pieces of silver and a gold bar that weighed as
much as fty pieces of gold. I wanted them for myself, so I
took and hid them in a hole beneath my tent.
So Joshua immediately sent men running to Achans tent
to retrieve the silver, the gold and the robe. They brought
the deled items back and laid them before the Lord so that
Joshua and the rest of the Israelites could see them.
Then everyone took Achan, his sons and daughters, his
cattle, donkeys, and sheep, his tent and everything that belonged to him, as well as the things he had stolen, to a nearby
valley.
Once there, Joshua said, Achan, youve caused us a lot
of trouble. Now you are in trouble.
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The people of Israel stoned Achan, his family and his

animals to death. They built a re and burned the bodies,
along with all the possessions and the cursed things that
Achan had stolen. They covered the ashes with a big pile
of rocks. And that place is still known as AchorTrouble
Valley.
Then God stopped being angry with Israel and gave them
the city of Ai (Joshua 8:1).
Ten Lessons We Learn from This Story
1. Gods Promises to Us Are Awesome!
Our great God is a promise-keeper. He has given us thousands of promises in His Word. Salvation is only the beginning of Gods promises. Beyond our salvation experience
there are countless treasures waiting for us to experience
in Christ, because God has blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
Furthermore:
We have everything we need to live a life that pleases
God. It was all given to us by Gods own power, when we
learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful
goodness. God made great and marvelous promises, so
that his nature would become part of us. Then we could
escape our evil desires and the corrupt inuences of this
world.
2 Peter 1:34 cev
Have you realized that once you are born again, His nature
becomes part of you?
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2. Gods Promises Are Often Contingent on Our

Obedience.
In order for us to enjoy the benets God has promised,
we must trust Him and believe that He keeps His Word. Our
faith activates His promises in our lives. However, many of
Gods promises are conditional. They are contingent upon
our obedience. We call them Gods if/then promises.
With regard to our salvation, Hes promised that if we
believe in our hearts and if we confess with our mouths,
we shall be saved (Romans 10:9).
With regard to His forgiveness of our sins, God has promised that If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
God had made covenant with Joshua and had given him
promises too. He promised to give him the land He had
promised Moses (Joshua 1:14, 15); to be with him and to
help him, as He had helped Moses (Joshua 1:9); that he
would never be defeated (Joshua 1:5).
But with those three promises, there were three commands,
or conditions: be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:6); do
everything Moses taught (Joshua 1:7); read, meditate on and
obey the Book of the Law (Joshua 1:8).
Achan had failed to do everything God had asked of him.
He had taken that which God had forbidden the Israelites to
takethings that God had designated for destructionand
had hidden them in a hole in the ground beneath his tent.
Although the Lord doesnt suggest that a demonic power was
attached to the Babylonian garment, the two hundred pieces
of silver or the fty gold shekels, He had said that those things
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were accursed and should be avoided. Why would God want

the Israelites to avoid them? They were cursed, and evil was
attached to them. Certainly Achans act of disobedience had
opened the door to darkness.
Consequently, the main idea of this story is that to disobey
God brings a curse, for disobedience is inherent in idolatry,
which is the worship of demons (Deuteronomy 32:1618).
3. Physical Things Sometimes Carry Spiritual
Signicance.
Throughout Scripture we see evidence that physical things
can carry spiritual signicance: the lambs blood that God
had the children of Israel apply to their doorposts (Exodus
12:713); the Tabernacle, its furnishings and utensils (Exodus 2627); water baptism (Luke 3:2122); the Last Supper (Matthew 26:28; 1 Corinthians 11:2325); miraculous
handkerchiefs and aprons (Acts 19:1112); healing oil (James
5:14). But perhaps the clearest example is found in the Old
Testament and is one most are familiar withMoses brass
serpent:
And the people spoke against God and against Moses: Why
have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this
worthless bread. So the Lord sent ery serpents among the
people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of
Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said,
We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and
against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents
from us. So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord
said to Moses, Make a ery serpent, and set it on a pole;
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6/10/15 7:15 AM
and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at

it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it
upon a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone,
when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
Numbers 21:59
The brass serpent that God instructed Moses to elevate on a

pole for the children of Israel to see offered a solution for their
sin. True, it was only a brass serpent on a polean inanimate
object; yet it provided healing power to those who were bitten
by the poisonous snakes. If they looked upon the brass serpent,
they were healed. Today we understand even more about the
signicance of that brass snake. The serpent that Moses lifted
up was actually a symbol of Christ who, when lifted upon
the cross, became sin for us. Our sin was judged in Him and
He died in our place. In dying, as they looked upon the brass
serpent and were saved from their sin and received physical
life, so we look to Jesus atoning sacrice upon the cross to be
saved from our sin and receive eternal life (John 3:14).
Nine hundred years later, when King Hezekiah was cleansing the Temple, He removed the high places and broke the
sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image [Asherah] and
broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for
until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it
(2 Kings 18:4, emphasis added).
Amazingly, after all those years, an object that God had
originally designed for Israels healing had become a god
they worshiped! So He called it deled.
Physical things can have a divine or even a demonic signicance. We experienced this rsthand at the 1996 International
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Conference on Prayer and Spiritual Warfare in Charlotte,

North Carolina. After teaching at the conference, we were
looking for a room where we could do individual counseling.
As we opened the door to a small room backstage, we saw
pieces of dog feces laid out in the shape of a cross on the
oor in the center of the room, pointed toward the pulpit in
the adjoining room. We felt a witch had placed them there
to curse the meetings. Witches believe that physical items
provide points of contact for demonic spirits. So their use
of fetishes is a common ploy for deception and control.4
This is no time for us to be aky or superstitious, but it
is time to learn how to walk circumspectly with spiritual
discernment. Some of the things in this book may appear
to you as mere superstition. According to our cultures denition of superstition, some might conclude that even our
belief in a spirit realm and our faith in an unseen God is a
superstition. As weve said, to us, superstition is placing faith
in any person, place or thing other than the almighty God
and His infallible Word. The spiritual dimension is real. It
preceded the physical dimension. The apostle Paul said, So
we x our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,
since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal
(2 Corinthians 4:18 niv).
4. God Forbids Us to Possess Certain Things.
Its inappropriate for Gods children to possess certain
things. When He saved us, He didnt patch up our old lives;
God made us new creations! Paul wrote, Therefore, if any4. A fetish is an object witches use to vex the environment with magic powers;
an amulet is a charm to ward off disease or evil spells.
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one is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed

away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians
5:17). Because of our new life in Christ, God expects new
living from us as well. We are to put off the old and put on
the new. Ephesians 5:811 says:
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the
Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the [light] is
in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), nding out what
is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
emphasis added
In Exodus 20:3, God forbade the children of Israel to

have any other gods. He is a jealous Godjealous of our
trust (Deuteronomy 4:24; 5:9). In Deuteronomy 18:913,
God warned them not to engage in witchcraft and astrology. He explained that such activities are abominable to
Him:
When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you
any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through
the re, or that useth divination, or an observer of times,
or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter
with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all
that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and
because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive
them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the
Lord thy God.
kjv
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In the Old Testament we see lists of things that dishonor

God and should not be found among His people. These
things suggest that there are other gods, which violates the
rst four commandments.
Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when
the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the
re, lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved
image in the form of any gure: the likeness of male or
female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or
the likeness of any winged bird that ies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness
of any sh that is in the water beneath the earth. And take
heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see
the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven,
you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which
the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the
whole heaven as a heritage. Take heed to yourselves, lest you
forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made
with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the
form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden
you. For the Lord your God is a consuming re, a jealous
God.
Deuteronomy 4:1519, 2324
This list is still valid. The Father is grieved if we possess

statues of other godsor any objects that connect us to a
spiritual source other than the one true God. Such items as
graven images of other gods (Exodus 20) are strictly forbidden, because they open the door to supernatural deception,
turn people away from God and hinder peoples spiritual
and physical health.
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5. The Use of an Item Can Establish Its Spiritual

Signicance.
Most objects are neither good nor evil in and of themselves. However, the way that we use them can establish their
spiritual signicance.
One day we wandered into a shop in Madras, India. We
were souvenir shopping before leaving to go to the airport.
There on an elevated platform sat an artisan holding a log
with his bare feet as he skillfully carved it with hammer and
chisel.
What are you making? Eddie asked the man.
Im carving a god, he replied.
And which god are you carving?
Im carving Ganesh, our god of prosperity, he answered.
To his amazement, Eddie aggressively lurched toward him
and shouted, Hurry! Finish it! Quickly . . . quickly!
Why? Whats the rush? the man asked.
Still animated, Eddie said, Sir, look out the windows of
your shop. Your streets and sidewalks are littered with lepers and beggars. Your people are malnourished. Many are
starving. Finish your god of prosperity and get him into
the streets so he can do what hes supposed to do!
Well never forget the expression on the mans face. It
seemed to say, You know, what you just said makes a lot of
sense. (And perhaps he had an additional awareness that
none of his other idols had ever worked either.)
There certainly was nothing intrinsically wrong with the
log the man was carving. Yet when carved into an object of
heathen worship, though it provided no solution to poverty,
its spiritual signicance was contrary to the Kingdom of God
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(Deuteronomy 4:1519, 2324). Indeed, decades of experience

with deliverance ministry has convinced us that demons sometimes attach themselves to certain persons, places and things.
Referring to man-made idols, Paul said, We know that an
idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God
but one (1 Corinthians 8:4, emphasis added). So in and of
themselves idols are simply powerless objects, and the meat
sacriced to them is nothing more than meat.
However, Paul went on to explain, What am I saying
then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is
anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrice
they sacrice to demons and not to God, and I do not want
you to have fellowship with demons (Deuteronomy 32:17;
1 Corinthians 10:1920).
Since the beginning, people have used inanimate handcrafted objects to commune with demons. The spiritual
strength behind the idol is demonic. The demons use the
idol to receive worship from people who are deceived and
desperate enough to worship them. When they worship, pray
to, or honor idols, people are worshiping demons. As a result,
the idols they worship can become tools of the devil; even
their own lives are then open to demonic inuence. Demons
lead deceived people astray directly or indirectly through the
mediation of these objects.
You might ask why Paul had no problem eating meat that
had been offered to idols. His only reluctance to do so was
that he would not offend a weaker brother (1 Corinthians
8:313). Wouldnt the meat, which is a physical object, be
subject to a demonic attachment as well?
Of course we cannot know for certain. But perhaps food is
a special case, since it is created by God to satisfy a universal
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need. To the contrary, objects that have only one purposeto

operate outside of the governance of God and to actively and
independently work against Himcall for either deliverance
or destruction.
A good example of such an instance relates to the day a
cable movie channel mysteriously appeared on our television.
I (Eddie) called the cable company and said, Maam, we
are receiving HBO on our television and we didnt order it.
Thats okay, the lady answered politely.
No, its not okay, I insisted. Let me speak to your general manager.
The general manager came to the phone and said, Friends,
I was told about your call. Dont you worry; were not going
to charge you for the HBO.
Youre not going to charge us?! I responded hotly. Sir,
you had better hope that we dont charge you! We dont let
the city of Houston dump their garbage in our front yard,
and were not about to allow you to dump your garbage in
our living room!
Its amazing how fast that movie channel disappeared!
6. Illicit Possessions Can Separate Us from Gods
Purposes, Protection and Power.
Gods protection of us and His power released through
us are directly related to His purposes for us. When we willfullyor ignorantly for that matterstep away from Gods
purposes for our lives, we step out from under His protective
care.
You can clearly see this in the life of Samson. He forsook
Gods call on his life to live the life of a fool. Then one day
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6/10/15 7:15 AM
Delilah awoke him: And she said, The Philistines are upon
you, Samson! So he awoke from his sleep, and said, I will go
out as before, at other times, and shake myself free! But he
did not know that the LORD had departed from him (Judges
16:20, emphasis added).
Its not that God refused to protect Samson. Samson, in
his recklessness, forsook Gods purpose; and when he did,
Samson ceded Gods protection and power. Do you agree?
Do you see how deception in our lives keeps us from Gods
wonderful plan for our future?
7. One Persons Crime Can Result in Corporate
Consequences.
We learn an amazing lesson in this case of Joshua and the
nation of Israel (Joshua 7). Only one personAchanhad
sinned; yet God held the entire nation accountable! Look at
these plural references in what God said to Joshua:
Israel (the whole nation) committed a trespass (Joshua
7:1).
The anger of the Lord was kindled against the children
of Israel (all of them) (v. 1).
Israel sinned (Joshua 7:11).
Israel transgressed Gods covenant (v. 11).
Israel took the accursed things (v. 11).
Israel stole (v. 11).
Israel put the stolen items among their own things (v.
11).
Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before
their enemies (Joshua 7:12).
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They turned their backs before their enemies, because

they were accursed (v. 12).
Neither would God be with them anymore, unless they
destroyed the accursed from among them (v. 12).
Incredibly, one mans sin brought repercussions upon the
entire nation. Achans sin produced corporate consequences.
As a result, 36 soldiers (husbands, sons and fathers) needlessly died in the rst futile battle against Ai. As a consequence of Achans sin, an entire nation was left defenseless
and fearful. And, in some ways, this is the saddest of all:
Achans familyhis wife, his sons and daughters, who as far
as we know were innocentwere executed along with him.
This corporate nature of the Christian life is somewhat
foreign to us as Americanswe typically pride ourselves on
our independence. We have yet to learn that as members of
Christs Body we werent designed by God to be independent, but rather to be interdependent upon each other. And
as Paul wrote, If one member suffers, all suffer together
(1 Corinthians 12:26 esv).
So, if you are a Christian man with pornography hidden
in your home or a Christian lady whos addicted to sexually
explicit romance novels, youre very likely contributing to
the spiritual impotence of Christs Church.
8. When We Seek God, He Will Reveal the Deled
Things.
How can we know which of our possessions dishonor the
Lord? Thankfully, we dont have to guess about these things.
God has given us His Spirit. Jesus promised, However, when
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He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all
truth (John 16:13). When we pursue purity and ask the Father, He will show us if any of our possessions are displeasing
to Him. The truth is, God reveals to heal!
We experienced such a healing after God revealed the unseen demonic intruder who at times invaded our peaceful
home. We loved our home nestled in the woods far from the
busy traffic and hurried lifestyles of Houston, our nations
fourth largest city; but an evil presence (and sometimes odor)
would appear in a particular corner of our large family room.
We could sense it, and our children often complained when
sitting in that part of the room.
One evening, as I (Alice) was pacing the room in prayer for
special church services that were to begin later that night, I
sensed that evil presence again. Enough was enough! I sought
the Lord as to why. Unwilling to wait any longer, I closely
checked all the trinkets and magazines near the corner of the
room. When I examined the replace mantel, my gaze settled
on a beautifully bound, six-volume set of books. Id inherited
the elegant collection from a deceased aunt. Neither Eddie
nor I had ever opened themthey simply were ornaments
to grace our mantel. Inside the books were pages lled with
lithographs of ghosts, gargoyles and graveyards with spirits
ascending from the tomb. The author wrote of depression,
death and fear. I was appalled! After I repented to the Lord
for allowing these books into our home, I spoke aloud and
broke all contracts with demons that used the books as an
access point into our home. I trashed the books and the
problem never recurred.
Thankfully, because Christ died in our place, unlike Achan
and his family, who died for having the accursed things, you
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and I will not be executed. Hallelujah! But as the believers in

Acts 19 did, we need to rid ourselves of anything that deles
our lives and our homes. Well talk more (in chapter 4) about
what those things might be.
9. We Should Ruthlessly Rid Ourselves of Wicked Things.
Self-indulgent Achan had abused Gods grace and presumed upon Gods promises. The result was a welcomed
victory to the Canaanites. But as a consequence of their
unexpected loss, Israel was awakened, reformed and reconciled to God.
Scripture tells us, Now these things [Old Testament accounts] became our examples, to the intent that we should
not lust after evil things as they also lusted (1 Corinthians
10:6). Having read this experience of Joshua and the children of Israel, we shouldnt have to be forced to allow God
to inspect our hearts and our possessions.
In the New Testament we read about a revival in the city
of Ephesus:
Many who had believed came confessing and telling their
deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought
their books together and burned them in the sight of all.
And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fty
thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew
mightily and prevailed.
Acts 19:1820
Our friend C. Peter Wagner states that the value of the

occult items the Ephesians destroyed that day was approximately six million U.S. dollars!
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God is about the work of His Kingdom. And the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17 kjv). Our
possessions should express the righteousness, peace and joy
of Gods Kingdom. If they dont, the moment the Lord reveals spiritual contamination to us, we should repent and
unrelentingly rid ourselves of it for Christs sake.
Such a vigilant course of action may seem unnecessarybut
perhaps you can learn something from Jim, a new believer who
had left behind a life of sin and now was passionate about
Jesus, his new Lord! When Jim heard the teaching of spiritual
housecleaning, he remembered that his Rolex watch had been
a gift from a woman with whom he had lived in adultery. Jim
desired to please the Lord, so early the next morning he drove to
the city lake, stepped out of his Cadillac, removed the gold and
diamond-encrusted watch and threw it as far as he could into
the murky water. Later that day he told us about his experience.
Why did you throw the watch away? we asked him.
Because it was symbolic of the unholy relationship I experienced with that woman, he replied.
The watch was more than a watch. To Jim it represented
an evil contract that sealed the covenant of sin he had with
the woman. However, the watch wasnt inherently evil. It
wasnt a golden dragon or designed as a snarling serpent. It
was only a very expensive gold watch. Although Jim could
have prayed over it, repented for the sin it represented, broken the contracts that it symbolized and sanctied it to the
Lord, he opted to destroy it. Had he asked for our counsel,
in that case we would have encouraged him to sell the watch
and invest the money in the Kingdom of God as a gift to his
church or to the poor. Let wisdom prevail!
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But the point is this: Never underestimate the wiles of

the devilhe will explore every option and examine every
possible entryway to your life!
10. Obedience Restores Our Fellowship with God and
Reinstates His Purposes.
Unauthorized possessions hinder, and in some cases prevent us from being blessed and used of God. As it was with
Joshua and the children of Israel, personal cleansing will
restore Gods presence, reinstate His protection and reignite
His power in our lives. (Read in Joshua 8 how the Lord delivered the city of Ai into the hands of the children of Israel.)
Prayer Assignment
Father, in the precious name of Jesus, I am so blessed
that You love me enough to show me the truth about my
life, my home, my children and my possessions. Lord, I
dont want to be like Achan, who kept things that You
called deled. Would You right now, holy God, reveal
to me anything I possess that displeases You? I desire
holiness, and You are holy; so show me the unholy actions in my life or the unholy possessions in my care
or the unholy covenants I have made. In Jesus name
I pray, Amen.
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Spiritual Housecleaning

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3 RD E D I T I O N

EDDIE & ALICE SMITH

(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)

2003, 2007, 2009, 2015 by Eddie and Alice Smith

Eddie & Alice Smith, Spiritual Housecleaning, 3rd ed.

(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)

Preface: Fasten Your Seat Belt 9

Part Two: Stories and Applications

(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)

10. Work, Other Peoples Property, and Loved

(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)

In the 1980s, I (Eddie) took a church pastoral staff job, and

(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)

opened the door and discovered a Christian book about

(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)

(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)

Imagine there was a plague of snakes of biblical proportion

(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)

Many of us are suffering today because we have sometimes

(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)

What does purity of heart involve for us as Christians?

(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)

Eddie & Alice Smith, Spiritual Housecleaning, 3rd ed.

(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)

The Indian sun blazed, raising temperatures to 118 degrees

(Unpublished manuscriptcopyright protected Baker Publishing Group)